The present disclosure relates to an inductor and a method of manufacturing the same.
A multilayer inductor may have a structure in which a plurality of insulating layers having conductor patterns formed thereon are stacked, in which the conductor patterns may be sequentially connected by conductive vias formed on each of the insulating layers and may overlap each other in a stacking direction to form a coil having a spiral structure. Further, both end portions of the coil may be drawn out to an external surface of a laminate to be connected to an external terminal.
Inductors are mainly surface mount device (SMD) type inductors mounted on circuit boards. High frequency inductors may be used at high frequencies of 100 MHz or above, and the use of high frequency inductors in the communications market is gradually increasing. The most important feature in high frequency inductors is securing quality factor Q characteristics representing efficiency of a chip inductor. In this case, Q=wL/R, in which the Q value is a ratio of inductance L and resistance R in a given frequency band.
A large number of components need to be mounted on a circuit board in a limited area, and therefore demand for the miniaturization of components is increasing. To secure the same degree of capacity while miniaturizing the inductor, there is a need to reduce a thickness or a line width of a coil pattern. In this case, Q characteristics may be reduced and the use frequency may be narrowed.
Therefore, there is a need to develop an inductor structure capable of securing inductance capacity and Q characteristics while miniaturizing the inductor.